Archives for 4 Oct,2014

There’s a benefit to working on a team as it transforms to Agile as opposed to jumping ship and moving from a company without Agile to one that practices Agile.

Don’t get me wrong – moving to a new company and experiencing Agile is a cool thing. But seeing a team of people you’re familiar with as it transforms is powerful. Watching familiar frustrations fade and seeing timelines shrink – with the same people on the project – is exhilarating.

The first time Agile was introduced to me, it was proposed that we adopt Scrum. My team was barely meeting our deadlines and we were working twelve hour days. We always managed to deliver, but it was because we were killing ourselves to do so. Often we’d be on conference calls at night from home, trying to finish up pieces of our product before a release date. We operated under a sense of constant panic and rush.

When we were asked by our project manager to read sections of Agile Estimating and Planning and User Stories Applied (both by Mike Cohn), we couldn’t believe he was making us invest time in something like a new methodology while we were all struggling to just keep our heads above water. But he insisted, and we all grumbled our way through our first few weeks of Scrum, waiting for it to fail and for our PM to allow us to go back to what we were doing before.

I clearly remember thinking that this would be the thing that pushed us into failure. We didn’t have time to mess around with some new methodology. I hoped that our PM would realize that before it was too late, but I had no option other to go along with him and indulge his new hair-brained idea.

Somewhere into our second week, we began to understand the process and embrace the tools. Somewhere into our fourth week, it became something that we would all insist on continuing even if it was no longer required of us.

Days of frustrated moans and frantic hallway conversations morphed into coordinated efforts and understanding.

Nights of working from home vanished as our estimates and efforts became more effective.

Rather than packing up at the end of the day and rushing home to complete something that we just found out we had to do, we were packing up and heading out for drinks because we knew that we were on schedule.

Relationships began to solidify, and our team felt a bit like soldiers returning triumphant from battle. (I know that sounds dramatic, but it really was a battle for us before Scrum. We all have mental scars from the days of fighting toward deadlines. From giving our all and realizing that our all was barely enough to pass muster.)

Other teams saw what our team was doing, and began to implement Agile, as well. Scrum terms became a part of daily communication, and the entire office changed dramatically.

Before Scrum, it was a stressful environment full of high achievers who constantly felt as though they were tugging against some invisible force in order to complete the bare minimum.

After Scrum, those same high achievers were allowed to sail forward together. The entire culture of our office changed within six months of Scrum making its way onto our team. (Remember – same people, same products, same office, same leadership. The only thing that changed was the fact that we became Agile.)

If I hadn’t been there for the transformation and experienced it firsthand, I don’t think I would have understood the significant difference that Agile can have on not only project completion, but on the people involved, as well.